


I just need your extra time (and your kiss).

by boogara (Alexander_Slamilton)



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Emotional confessions, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Just guys being pals, M/M, Shane is slightly depressed, just pals being dudes, they make out in a ghost house, yup
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-30
Updated: 2018-03-30
Packaged: 2019-04-15 23:46:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14152011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alexander_Slamilton/pseuds/boogara
Summary: " “I was thinking about going to back Illinois,” Shane says, interrupting whatever Ryan has been saying, “for a while.” He takes a breath, waiting for his friend to respond.“What d’you mean?” Ryan asks, his eyes filled with worry, “for, like,” Ryan stops and seems to collect himself for a minute, “for, like ever?” Shane can see his hands tighten on the wheel, so that his finger tips turn white. “Are you gonna quit?” "Shane isn't sure whether he's feeling too much or not enough. Ryan just wishes that Shane would kiss him already.





	I just need your extra time (and your kiss).

Shane isn’t sure what it is about working with Ryan on unsolved that has changed his life so much. He’s not sure when the change happened, he thinks it occurred somewhere between the Isle of the Dolls and Anneliese Mitchell. All he knows is that some part of Ryan’s infectious happiness has rubbed off on him and he finds himself smiling and laughing more and more the more he sits by Ryan’s side. He looks forward to work now, and always leaves with a grin on his face; waiting by the corner of his street, by the Starbucks, for Ryan to pick him up. They sit in the car, talking about not all that much, talking about their theories on the true crime cases they’re thinking for Unsolved.

They’re sitting in the car, as the sun rises; driving to their next shoot, some old house in San Diego. The rest of the crew is following them in a truck; Ryan is going on about this case of a guy who was found in a crashed car with his brain missing. The morning had dawned hot, and Shane can see the little heat lines rising off the road. Tonight is going to be hard, it’ll probably be too hot to sleep in the house, and Ryan will no doubt keep him awake by squawking at every little creek. Shane is tired though, he spent last night in an internet search hole, flicking from Wikipedia page to tumblr and twitter to Wikipedia again. His brain had been too muddled with half-formed thoughts to sleep.

“And that’s how aliens could be involved,” Ryan finishes, as Shane looks over at him.

“Right, so they just got into the car with him? Like hi, mister! We’re here to steal your brain!” He gestures wildly, waving his hands about as the light in front of them goes from orange to red.

“I mean, they wouldn’t have got in the car, per sae, more like they teleported-“

“Wait, I’m sorry, are you serious?” Shane looked at Ryan properly. “You actually think it’s aliens?”

“Well, of course, they’re aliens. They're gonna have some sort of shady tech, dude,” Ryan wheezes as he takes his eyes off the road for a second to look at Shane. The light is red, it doesn’t matter that Ryan isn’t looking at the road for two seconds, but the moment, to Shane at least lasts a lifetime. Then he lets out a laugh.

“So they appear in this guys car-“ He starts, trying to rationalise Ryan’s theory.

“Which makes him crash-“ Ryan is back to looking at the road again, but he’s looking excited that Shane is at least talking about his insane idea.

“Right, which makes him crash, because holy shit! Aliens! And then… what? They just fucking? Eat his brain?” Shane finishes, laughing a little.

“Sure, they could have eaten it, or they could have taken it to do tests on the thing,” Ryan nods seriously, a little bit of his hair has fallen in front of his forehead, out of his meticulously sculpted quiff.

“‘Tests’ sure,” Shane smiles, dragging out the ‘e’ at the end, “then what, they left without a trace. No witnesses, no damage to the car apart from when it-“

“Smashed into that fucking tree,” Ryan scoffs, “Cause there couldn’t have been damaged before he smashed into the tree.”

“The police checked that though, the car was good; it was in working order,” Shane sighs, resisting the urge to slam his head against the dashboard, just.

“Just, suspend your disbelief for a second, big guy,” Ryan begins while Shane sighs again, he grins, “Imagine this…”

Shane tunes out as Ryan starts pushing theory after theory, trying to get Shane to believe that aliens could be responsible for the missing brains. The sun has risen above the horizon now; the palm trees turn slowly to more scrub-like bushes, the Hollywood hills thinning out to California desert. They chose to drive the coast road, it was nicer, and would make their early morning a little more worth it if they got to stop along the way. Shane stares at the blue ocean that crashes against the cliffs to the left of them; there were more hills now as they near San Diego. Shane wonders if they were going to go straight on to their next location in San Francisco, though he realises with a slight sinking feeling in his gut, that he’d not brought enough clothes to last more than three days. He sighs again and lets his head fall against the headrest, staring as the California landscape speeds past him.

It isn’t that he finds the rolling hills and desert valleys boring as such, it was more that he has recently found himself longing to go back Illinois. He wants to see the valleys and forests, flush with green life and tiny little farms with red roofs. There is a lingering ache deep inside him for the cold, the nip and sting of the wind in the North East, he wants to see the knee-deep snow as it lies over Chicago. Shane desperately wants seasons, he hadn’t expected to miss the changing weather as much as he does, yet here he wants the rain in fall and spring. LA, though it is awesome and the place where he’s considering spending the rest of his life, wasn’t where he wanted to be in that moment.

“I was thinking about going to back Illinois,” Shane says, interrupting whatever Ryan has been saying, “for a while.” He takes a breath, waiting for his friend to respond.

“What d’you mean?” Ryan asks, his eyes filled with worry, “for, like,” Ryan stops and seems to collect himself for a minute, “for, like ever?” Shane can see his hands tighten on the wheel so that his fingertips turn white. “Are you gonna quit?”

“No,” Shane says, trying to make it seem as though he actually has a plan in mind, “Nah. Not forever, just maybe asking if I can work back home for a bit. Like- fuck,” he stops, and breathes in and out, letting the artificial air fill his lungs, “like a month or so.”

“A month or so?” Ryan glances at him quickly, before turning to the road. “I mean, sure, man. Uh, if you think this is for the best. I mean, if you want to do this, then - uh- go for it.”

“Yeah,” Shane sighs again, “I mean, um, after Sara, I can’t- you know…” He trails off, allowing Ryan to fill in the gaps of what he said. He and Sara had an amicable enough split, she was moving to Philadelphia, and he had wanted to stay in LA with Buzzfeed. She’d left him sitting in their- his, apartment with a kiss on the cheek. Shane knows he hasn't told anyone that, it had always felt like it was too soon, though this had happened two weeks ago. It was the last time Shane could remember sleeping properly, the last time his brain hadn’t been fogged up with sadness. “I want to go home, you know, I want to spend some time with my family.”

“After Sara? I thought you two were okay?” Ryan looks confused, “I mean, I knew she was, um moving? But you know, long distance, and all that.” He’s so sincere that Shane’s heart constricts with feelings he’s not ready to look at yet. The highway stretches out in front of them, Shane sees a sign to San Diego that says 70, and he resists the urge to sigh. “Uh, I thought you were gonna try it out?” Ryan says, and he's so good treating Shane like a scared wild animal because he’s kind like that and probably doesn’t want to hurt Shane.

“We were, but she,” Shane doesn’t resist the urge to sigh this time, “she couldn't do it, she has an ex there. In-“ he breaks off as his stomach does something painful, “in Philadelphia, so she left me.” He spits the last part out quickly, as it burns like acid reflux up his throat.

“Oh,” Ryan lets the word out like he was holding in a breath, “I’m so-“

“Don’t be,” Shane cuts him off; he doesn’t need pity, “I’m okay. I mean. I’m dealing. I can deal. Unsolved is actually helping, you know? It takes my mind off it, and I was gonna ask, that maybe we could do a shoot in Illinois as a finale. I could just stay home after?”

Ryan looks over at him, taking his eyes off the road again, “dude, sure. Whatever you need. I’m sure there’re loads of ghosts and stuff there.” Ryan’s smiling again, as he looks out on to the road. “And, hey, Big Guy, if you ever wanna… you know… talk then I’m here, dude.”

Shane almost smiles at the nickname, but he knows he can’t ever talk to Ryan about Sara’s leaving him. “Thanks.” He mutters, a smile almost curling the corners of his mouth. “Thank you.” He goes back to staring out the window, and somewhere he must have fallen asleep, watching California roll by him.

“Shane!” Ryan is shaking him, he can feel his fingers digging into his shoulder, “Shane, dude, we’re here.” Ryan says he’s grinning as he stands at the car door with the shitty looking house in the background. “C’mon, this place looks awesome.”

“If by awesome you mean disease-ridden, then you’d be so right!” Shane smiles, he knows it looks forced, for the camera that’s being shoved in his face, but he does try and make it reach his eyes. He can tell by Ryan’s face falling slightly that he didn’t do a great job. “I’m kidding; it looks just about habitable.” He’s not sure if that’s right, the house is decrepit. The paint, which once covered the outside is flaking off, and there’s rotten wood exposed on the gable roof and porch. The front yard is full of weed and dog crap; it looks like there are some kind of bones scattered amongst the weeds as well. There’s a chain link fence which separates the house from the street, it’s rust covered and creeks even in the light wind that skitters down the house lined road.

“I think it holds a certain charm,” Ryan smiles, strapping his GoPro on his chest, he looks at Shane, brown eyes searching. “It looks promising.” He grins, shrugging as Shane shakes his head at the camera. “We’re supposed to be meeting the current owner in a couple of minutes; she’s been chased out of here while doing it up. It is said that spiritual activity can increase when renovations take place-“

“Sure! I guess ghosts have strong opinions on shades of paint!” Shane cuts across, trying to pick up his natural banter. “Do you think that they’re just in there watching the renovation going ‘No! No! Not pigeon wing blue!’” Shane does actually smile this time, as he can hear Ryan’s wheeze.

“Pi- pigeon wing blue?” Ryan looks at him, “That’s not a- that’s not a real paint colour, right?”

“I dunno, it just felt right, I guess,” Shane laughs as Ryan continues to stare at him.

An old car pulls up on to the drive behind them, the lady inside wiggles the stick shift and unfolds herself. She looks harried, her hair is frizzy, and her brow is furrowed; in her hands, she holds a few bits of paper.

“Hi!” Ryan says walking up to her, his hand outstretched, “you must be Ms Andrews?”

“That’s me, sorry just had to drop the kids off at daycare. You’re Ryan, right,” her voice is friendly, but she's looking back and forth at the house constantly, her eyes flicking between the dark windows and Ryan’s face. “And you must be Shane?” She looks at his face, but her gaze is empty of pretty much anything but fear; she glances at the house again, looking at each of the windows. They shake hands; her grip is warm and firm.

“Well,” Ryan starts, “will you be alright doing an interview inside the house, or-“

“I’m sorry, I don’t think I can go back in,” Ms Andrews shakes her head, “maybe on the porch or…”

Ryan smiles kindly, nodding in understanding at her, “that’s fine,” he says, nodding at Adam to set up the folding chairs they carry with them. “We’ll do the interview on the porch; then we were going to do a walkthrough, that’s best if it happens during the day.” He pauses as he notices the look on Ms Andrews’ face, “don’t worry though, we can do that on our own, we just need the floor plan and the information from the interview.”

“Okay, okay,” Ms Andrews smiles a little bit, it is small and tentative, a half lift of the corner of her mouth. She looks up at the building and shakes her head, “I was going to raise my kids here. Then my husband… If he’s,” she takes a deep breath, “if he’s still here, I don’t want to know. I don’t want to know anything.” She says, looking at Ryan, “it’s being sold, to the city council, they’re going to take and demolish it.”

The house stands still, just like it should, the flaking paint and rotten wood make it look older than it is. It has only been empty for five years since Ms Andrews’s husband died inside it, Shane knows she thinks it was the demon that supposedly haunted the place. The house though just looks like a house, a normal suburban house as it stands in the midday sun. Shane wants to get inside it; he wants Ryan to prove him wrong, he just doesn’t think it will ever actually happen.

“We should get started then,” Ryan nods at Adam again, who lights the portable softboxes they’d brought.

***

It goes well, and Ms Andrews leaves a lot happier than she had arrived, they have all the information they need to do the investigation. Shane is looking through the trunk of the car for some camera or something, in truth he’d wanted a break from being near Ryan. It had been getting harder and harder for Shane to be near his friend in the last few months. Sara had noticed too, that’s why she’d left him, it had been as amicable as it could have been.

“Hey! Shanesquatch, you ready?” Ryan yelled from the door, “have you found that monopod or do we need to beg the office for a new one?”

“I found it,” Shane said holding up the previously missing monopod.

He walks back inside, putting on the breathing mask that they had been told to wear. Shane looks back at Ryan, and he can see the other man is grinning, the corners of his wonderfully kind brown eyes have creased. The flashlight makes the shadows on Ryan’s face more pronounced, and it takes all of Shane’s energy not to kiss him.

“So, this is where it happened; this is where they saw the demon,” Ryan shines the flashlight on the spot which looks just like an empty space where a fridge used to stand. “It knocked over the fridge and then went for Mr Andrews.” Ryan pans the light from his flashlight across the kitchen before he catches a shadow. “What the fuck is that, dude?”

“I dunno,” Shane shrugs and moves towards the shadow, “nothing? It’s just a shadow, R-“

But then the shadow moves. Shane jumps backwards as the cat jumps from the counter and lands on the dark floor soundlessly. It rubs against Shane’s legs, nothing more than a kitten, purring loudly; he bends down and picks up the cat.

“Look! A cat!” Shane turns and sees Ryan’s eyes so full of something he can’t put his finger on it, “we should keep it.”

“Take it to Illinois with you,” Ryan mutters, he drops the flashlight and moves into the next room, the feeling in the room is somewhat colder, and Shane realises that his feelings might not be entirely one-sided.

The cat is curling up against his chest, its head nuzzling just under his chin, purring. Shane feels like there are butterflies filling his insides, flying around his stomach as he holds the cat in his arms. He can hear Ryan moving through the rooms, muttering about Illinois. Shane can hear the bits of house he was kicking across the floor, he looks down at the cat, his other hand shoving the monopod into his pocket. He scratched the cat between the ears, the purring increased.

“Ryan,” he followed his erstwhile colleague, “Ryan,” he starts watching as Ryan sat down on a folding chair, cradling his head in his hands. “Ryan, what’s up man?”

“You’re leaving…” The ‘me’ goes unspoken, and Shane feels empty, “you’re going to leave unsolved and go back to Chicago. And you’ve been so-“ Ryan breaks off, “you’ve been getting more and more distant, and I guess I’m being selfish, but I really don’t think I’d be able to do this without you, and I couldn't live with myself if this died.”

“I-“ Shane starts, there’s a snuffle from just below his chin; the cat has fallen asleep in his arms. “I didn’t think that you’d-“

“I’d what? Care about you being so far away? You’ve not lived in Illinois for nearly twelve years, Shane, I can’t help but be a just a little concerned. You know, worried that you’re jetting off and living somewhere where you don't have any friends, only your mom. Really, Shane, I’m worried about you.” Ryan looks at him; his eyes worried as the shadows in the house seemed to creep in around them not put off by the flashlight. “Are you possessed?” Ryans ask, and he looks so serious that Shane can’t even come up with a witty reply to that.

“No,” Shane shakes his head, not wanting to disturb the cat still in his arms, it has it’s tongue out and was looking unfairly adorable. “‘m not possessed. Just.” He shakes his head again. “Just, tired.” He looks to the side, the dark shadows seeming to creep closer and closer to him, his eyes are playing tricks on him; he knows that he knows that there’s nothing there in the dark. “Wait,” he says, “you think I’m possessed?” He laughs out loud at that.

“That’s what you got out of that?” It is Ryan’s turn to let out a laugh now, it’s harsh and echoes off the walls. He stops though, his face becoming serious as he looks up at Shane, “we’re doing this aren’t we?” and Ryan is suddenly standing up, crowding into Shane’s space, and Shane finds that he really doesn’t mind. “We’re in the middle of a terrifying house, and we’re doing this.”

“I don’t-“ Shane starts, but Ryan is right there, so close that Shane can smell the lemony shampoo Ryan uses. The words die in his throat, somewhere alongside he furiously beating heart and Shane is entirely lost in Ryan.

“I care so fucking much about you,” Ryan says, low and urgent, like the words have fought through him to get out into the still night air, “so fucking much, and you don’t ever seem to notice, and that’s fine I’d not ask anything from you. But sometimes,” he coughs, and breathes, “sometimes I see something in your eyes, and I think, maybe, and I allow myself to dream but fuck. You’ve never seen or seemed to care about me like I care about you-“

“Ryan-“ Shane tries to speak, but Ryan is talking over him, determined it seems to get everything out in the open.

“No, one second, lemme finish. Then, this morning you say you’re going to Illinois and then act like nothing is out of the ordinary, like this is just another investigation, when you’ve acted like you could leave this and me alone without another thought. I know you didn't mean it like that, but hey, it’s what I thought. Then I thought seriously about you leaving, and I realised that I couldn’t let you go without-“ Ryan stops again, and he looks up at Shane with something in his eyes part resigned and part determined. “Can I kiss you?”

Shane’s world comes to a crashing halt; the rooms seems to shrink to just him and Ryan (and the cat, asleep in his arms). His mouth dries up, letting him down at the moment he needs it the most; he stumbles over words that evaporate unspoken into the heated air. He does the most logical thing and turns to put the cat down gently on the chair closest to him. Then he turns back to Ryan, catching him just as he was about to walk away. Shane trails his fingers up Ryan’s arm towards his shirt collar. They’re standing very close, Shane’s fingers tangling in the collar of Ryan’s new button up. Their breath is mingling, and Shane can hear as Ryan swallows, his tongue coming out of his mouth to lick at his lips. Ryan moves, standing on his tip toes, and their noses are brushing now; Shane’s eyes widen a fraction, and he knows that if Ryan could see properly, he wouldn't be able to catch a hint of colour.

“Yes,” Shane says thickly, and he doesn’t have a minute to think about what this means, and the logical explanation for things because Ryan’s lips are on his. Ryans hands are in his hair, on his wait, roaming up and down his arms, and are intertwined brushing the back of his neck. Shane stops thinking and starts feeling things; it turns out the longing for the cold of Illinois was him wanting to stop the numbness. Now instead of freezing, he is being set alight. He rests his hands on Ryan’s hips, rubbing circles there with his thumbs; he is rewarded with the most delightful noises.

“We are not-“ Ryan’s words are swallowed by Shane’s lips, he pulls away again though, “we are not making out in a house with a demon haunting.”

“I suppose we’re going to need some footage from tonight,” Shane deadpans, forever grateful that Ryan is the only one who will see the unedited footage from tonight. “I’m going to name the cat Diego.” Ryan starts wheezing, and Shane feels his heart constrict, but this time, it doesn’t hurt.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it! Thanks for reading! Leave a comment... maybe... if that's what you wanna do... idk dude. 
> 
> I have a BuzzFeed Unsolved tumblr now! come and yell at me there: buzzfeedunsclved!!


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